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Procurement Spend Classification

This system assigns a standard category to each purchase, making our published spending data consistent and comparable.

Keywords

  • Tags: Classification
  • Tags: Transparency
  • Tags: Finance
  • Stage: Production
  • Type: Text classification model
  • Sector: Public administration
  • Language: English

How does our product work?

The supplier name, invoice description and cost centre are used to propose one of 180 standard spend categories. Proposals below the confidence threshold are reviewed by a finance officer.

No payment depends on the classification. It affects reporting only.

Overview

Departments described the same purchase in different words, which made published spend data almost impossible to aggregate or compare. Manual coding was inconsistent for the same reason.

Consistent categories are what make the published data actually usable by the public and by auditors.

Owner and responsibility

Finance Directorate

Alan Petrie

spend-transparency@example.gov

More detailed information on the system

Here you can get acquainted with the information used by the system, the operating logic, and its governance in the areas that interest you.

System description

Classifications are published alongside the spend data and can be challenged. A challenge that is upheld is corrected in the published data and added to the review set.

References

Standard spend category definitions.

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